The important things in life

Sometimes I find myself completely bogged down by the problems in life that I no longer see what is important. I think many of us have this problem where we forget that we only have one life, we only have one shot and we should take advantage of every moment. Life is not worth wasting on trivial problems, bullies who try to demean us and stressful jobs! There are always going to be reasons to be negative, to be worried, to be stressed. Then there comes that moment of clarity when you suddenly realise that all those feelings are not important. All the worry that's been needlessly eating you up inside is never going to solve anything, that in fact worrying is perhaps the most useless passtime of all. Anyone who has ever criticised someone about being a lazy layabout should look to themselves first and ask how much time they have spent worrying. I feel that I would rather waste an entire day being too high to do anything than waste 10 minutes worrying about something that cannot be changed. But I'm getting distracted here. The moment of clarity.

So as you know I'm now living in a tiny village in the Swiss alps called Lenk. I discovered just how tiny the other day when I went skiing on a powder day. It was one of those days where the visibility was next to nothing and it was dumping with snow. It was also my first day out on the mountain this season. We could barely see where we were going but it didn't matter at all. Every run we did felt like getting first tracks. As we rode the chairlift back up the snow covered all tracks and once again we had clean lines all the way down. The groomers had about a foot of snow on them and even more to the sides. The snow covered my knees and thighs with every turn. My skis glided over fluffy whiteness with absolute ease. No obstacles, no challenges. Buttery as snowboarders would say! As it was our first day up on the mountain with zero vis we stuck to groomers, but who can complain when you're skiing a foot of fresh snow on a mountain that had about 5 people skiing. Its one of those days most people look out and think, I'm going back to bed. For us it was one of those days where we thought thank goodness most people are pussies!!!!

The next day arrived with clear blue skies and the promise of new snow. Now if you've ever skied in Europe you will know Europeans have a very distinct "on piste" vs "off piste", for Americans that means groomers vs the rest of the mountain. Unlike in North America though, ski patrol only take care of the piste. Anything off piste is completely your own responsibility, which means that a lot of Europeans have this terrible fear of anything a snowcat hasn't mutilated. For me this means kilometres of untapped powder fields where every trip down gives me the opportunity to create a fresh line. This is the first time I've lived in a small resort. Think I've been sold on it! Sure the mountain is not as huge as the main resorts in the alps but then how many people in those resorts can say they get a fresh line every time they come down?

It is in days like that you realise that there are no problems, that nothing is insurmountable, anything is possible and that life is fan-fucking-fastic! We are not on earth to suffer, we're here to enjoy every day to the maximum. So whatever you do, do it with passion! We only have one life. That's it. LIVE IT!!